Fujiwara Civil War

The Fujiwara Civil War was a tense period of internal conflict between the two sister families of the fading Fujiwara clan of northern Japan from 1177 to 1180. The Kubota Fujiwara and Hiraizumi Fujiwara were long-time allies but the Hiraizumi conquest of the Soma clan and the perceived threat caused in doing so led to a Kubota invasion of Miyagi Province.

Background
The fading Fujiwara had served as sesshos (regents) and had taken powerful government positions in the late 11th century and early 12th century, and their rule was overthrown in the 1156 Hogen Rebellion by the rival Taira and Minamoto clans. Divided between the Hiraizumi Fujiwara of Mutsu Province and the Kubota Fujiwara of Ugo Province, the Fujiwara clan hovered above the rivalry of the Taira and Minamoto more southwards. Fujiwara Motofusa was the daimyo of the Kubota clan, while his relative Fujiwara Hidehira ruled the Hiraizumi. While the Hiraizumi clan admired management and were good government officials, the Kubota drew from Chinese culture and were also able to recruit superior warrior monks.

With these strengths and differences, the two clans proved to have different benefits that could aid them back to the court in Kyoto. Catapulted into a series of civil wars with rural peasants, however, the Kubota army that was built up for the invasion of the Soma was forced to stay home in Ugo Province to crush the Ugo Rebellion of 1176. Starving peasants rebelled time and time again in the Kubota lands while the Hiraizumi prepared to invade the Soma. They decimated the clan in autumn in 1176, and they captured the province with little opposition. Jealous of their kinsmen and fearful that the Hiraizumi would eventually block their southward advance, the Kubota Fujiwara plotted to bring down their allies. Kujo Teishi and 7,800 Kubota troops from Uzen Province invaded Miyagi Province and besieged Shoni Masatsura's 7,500 Hiraizumi troops in Sendai. After a siege that left 5,750 Kubota and all of the Hiraizumi dead, the Kubota won a costly victory that gained them Miyagi but labeled them as dishonorable traitors.

War
Fujiwara Hidehira was disappointed to learn that his allies betrayed him and attacked his lands that he had suffered dear casualties to gain.